Purchase orders

How to add, edit and delete purchase orders

Callum McFadgen avatar
Written by Callum McFadgen
Updated over a week ago

What are purchase orders?

Purchase orders are a list of items that you wish to order from a supplier to have delivered to one of your locations. These items are the products and/or sub products that have a supplier, see 'How do I add a supplier to a product?'.

Once a purchase order has been created and contains some items, it can then be used to create an email to send to the supplier and to track the status of the purchase order from draft through to delivery.

When a purchase order is delivered, the relevant product and/or sub product stock levels can be easily updated with the received items and if there are any items that were not delivered, than a new purchase order for those items can be created.

Purchase orders can be archived once they are received to remove the clutter from your purchase orders list and allow you to focus on purchase orders that need attention.

How do I add a purchase order?

  1. Go to Commerce > Products.

  2. Select Purchase orders from the menu on the left.

  3. Click Add in the top right.

  4. Select a Supplier from the drop down.

  5. If more than one location exists then select a Location from the dropdown otherwise the existing location will be used by default.

  6. Optionally, select an Expected delivery date.

  7. Optionally add a Supplier note (this is visible to the supplier).

  8. Optionally, add an Internal note (this is not visible to the supplier).

  9. Click Add.

How do I find a purchase order?

  1. Go to Commerce > Products > Purchase orders.

  2. Click Filter in the top right.

  3. Select the conditions you wish to use to filter the purchase orders.

  4. Click Update, this will return you to Commerce > Products > Purchase orders where the purchase orders will have been filtered, the filter conditions will be displayed in the Filtered by section above the list.

  5. Optionally, add the filter conditions as a saved search for future use.

How do I view a purchase order?

  1. Commerce > Products > Purchase orders

  2. Find the relevant purchase order in the list and click View in the OPTIONS column.

  3. You'll see a full overview of this purchase order including the purchase order items, notes, currency and history

  4. On this screen you can delete, archive, unarchive or edit the purchase order by selecting Delete from the More dropdown or clicking Archive, Unarchive or Edit in the top right. You can also manage a purchase order status, see 'What are the statuses of a purchase order?' and 'How do I manage the status of a purchase order?'.

How do I edit a purchase order?

  1. Go to Commerce > Products > Purchase orders.

  2. Find the relevant purchase order and click More in the Options column.

  3. Select Edit from the drop-down menu.

  4. Change the details of the purchase order.

  5. Click Update.

How do I archive a purchase order?

  1. Go to Commerce > Products > Purchase orders.

  2. Find the relevant purchase order and click More in the Options column.

  3. Select Archive from the drop-down menu.

How do I unarchive a purchase order?

  1. Go to Commerce > Products > Purchase orders.

  2. Find the relevant purchase order and click More in the Options column.

  3. Select Unarchive from the drop-down menu.

How do I delete a purchase order?

  1. Go to Commerce > Products > Purchase orders.

  2. Find the relevant purchase order and click More in the Options column.

  3. Select Delete from the drop-down menu.

  4. Click Delete.

What are the statuses of a purchase order?

The statuses used for purchase orders are:

  • Draft - purchase order is in progress.

  • Approved - the purchase order is complete and ready to be sent to a supplier.

  • Sent to supplier - the purchase order has either been emailed to the supplier or sent to the supplier in some other fashion.

  • Approved by supplier - the supplier has acknowledged and agreed to the purchase order.

  • Dispatched by supplier - the supplier has dispatched the items in the purchase order.

  • Delivered - the items have been received.

Managing these statuses allows you to create a useful history for the purchase order.

How do I manage the status of a purchase order?

The status of a purchase order is managed in the purchase order view, see 'How do I view a purchase order?'.

When a purchase order is first added it automatically has a status of Draft. When items have been added to the purchase order then the status can be changed to Approved by clicking Mark as approved in the top right.

Once Approved the purchase order status can be changed to Sent to supplier by clicking Mark as sent to supplier in the top right and optionally, selecting a Sent to supplier date before clicking Update or by emailing the purchase order to the supplier, see 'How do I email a purchase order?'.

Next the purchase order status can be changed to Approved by supplier by clicking Mark as approved by supplier in the top right and optionally, selecting an Approved by supplier date before clicking Update.

The purchase order status can now be changed to Dispatched by supplier by clicking Mark as dispatched by supplier in the top right and optionally, selecting a Dispatched by supplier date and updating the Expected delivery date and the Internal note before clicking update.

Finally, the purchase order status can be changed to delivered by clicking Receive delivery in the top right, see 'How do I receive the delivery of a purchase order?'

Note: Whenever purchase order items are added, or edited, then the purchase order status is changed to Draft.

How do I email a purchase order?

  1. Go to Commerce > Products > Purchase orders.

  2. Find the relevant purchase order in the list and click View in the OPTIONS column.

  3. Ensure the purchase order has items, see 'how do I add items to a purchase order?'

  4. Ensure the purchase order has a status of Approved, see 'How do I manage the status of a purchase order?'

  5. Click Email to supplier in the top right.

  6. Review the To, From and Reply to, Subject and Preview and optionally, select Send me a copy.

  7. Click Send, this will dispatch an email to the supplier and change the purchase order status to Sent to supplier.

If the purchase order needs to be emailed after the purchase order status has been changed to Sent to supplier:

  1. Go to Commerce > Products > Purchase orders.

  2. Find the relevant purchase order in the list and click View in the OPTIONS column.

  3. Click More in the top right and select Email supplier.

  4. Review the To, From and Reply to, Subject and Preview and optionally, select Send me a copy.

  5. Click Send, this will dispatch an email to the supplier.

How do I add/edit shipping for a purchase order?

  1. Go to Commerce > Products > Purchase orders.

  2. Find the relevant purchase order in the list and click View in the OPTIONS column.

  3. Ensure the purchase order has items, see 'How do I add items to a purchase order?'

  4. Click Edit to the right of Shipping below the Items list.

  5. Enter a Shipping price.

  6. Select a tax type from the Shipping tax type dropdown.

  7. Click Update.

How do I receive the delivery of a purchase order?

Once the status of a purchase order has been changed to Sent to supplier,

  1. Go to Commerce > Products > Purchase orders.

  2. Find the relevant purchase order in the list and click View in the OPTIONS column.

  3. Click Receive delivery in the top right.

  4. Select a Received date.

  5. Check that the quantities of the items being received are the same as the quantities that were requested in the purchase order, adjust if necessary.

  6. If an item quantity is less than that which was requested, then Create new purchase order for missing items will be displayed, leave this ticked if you wish to create a new purchase order for the missing items, see 'What happens if I don't receive all of the items in a purchase order?'

  7. Optionally, update the Internal note, select a Supplier invoice date and add a Supplier invoice number.

  8. Click Update, this will change the purchase order status to Delivered.

What happens if I don't receive all of the items in a purchase order?

If upon delivery of a purchase order, the quantity of any items is less than that which was requested and Create new purchase order for missing items is ticked then a new purchase order will be created with the missing items added to it.

The relationship between the received purchase order and new purchase orders can be observed via purchase order histories, see 'How do I view a purchase order?'. The original purchase order will display a Related PO number and the new purchase order will display the Originating PO number.

How do I add items?

There are three ways to add items to purchase orders

  • Add items to an existing purchase order directly.

  • Add items to an existing purchase order via a product/sub product.

  • Creating a new purchase order and add items to it via a supplier.

To add items directly to an existing purchase order:

  1. Go to Commerce > Products > Purchase orders.

  2. Find the relevant purchase order in the list and click View in the OPTIONS column.

  3. Click Add to the right of Items.

  4. Select a product/sub product from the Item dropdown.

  5. Enter a Quantity.

  6. Click Add.

To add items to an existing purchase order via a product:

  1. Go to Commerce > Products.

  2. Find the product in the list and click View in the OPTIONS column.

  3. Click More in the top right and select Add to purchase order.

  4. Select a purchase order from the Purchase order drop down.

  5. Enter a Quantity.

  6. Click Add.

To add items to an existing purchase order via a sub product:

  1. Go to Commerce > Products.

  2. Find the product in the list and click View in the OPTIONS column.

  3. Click the Sub products tab, this will display a list of sub products.

  4. Find the sub product in the list and click View in the OPTIONS column.

  5. Click More in the top right and select Add to purchase order.

  6. Select a purchase order from the Purchase order drop down.

  7. Enter a Quantity.

  8. Click Add.

To create a new purchase order and add items to it via a supplier.

  1. Go to Commerce > Products.

  2. Select Suppliers from the menu on the left.

  3. Find the supplier in the table and click View in the OPTIONS column.

  4. Click the Products tab, this will display a list of products/sub products.

  5. Next to the product/sub product, tick the checkbox for all the items you want to add to a purchase order.

  6. Once you've selected all the items you want to add, click the dropdown menu below the products/sub products list.

  7. Scroll down to where it says Add to purchase order

  8. Click Go.

  9. If more than one location exists then select a Location from the dropdown otherwise the existing location will be used by default.

  10. Optionally, select an Expected delivery date.

  11. Enter quantities for the products/sub products.

  12. Optionally add a Supplier note (this is visible to the supplier).

  13. Optionally, add an Internal note (this is not visible to the supplier).

  14. Click Add.

How do I edit items?

  1. Go to Commerce > Products > Purchase orders.

  2. Find the relevant purchase order in the list and click View in the OPTIONS column.

  3. Find the relevant item in the list and click Edit in the OPTIONS column.

  4. Change the details of the item.

  5. Click Update.

Note: updating an items Cost price also updates the Cost price of the relevant product/sub product until the purchase order has the status of delivered.

How do I remove items?

  1. Go to Commerce > Products > Purchase orders.

  2. Find the relevant purchase order in the list and click View in the OPTIONS column.

  3. Find the relevant item in the list and click Delete in the OPTIONS column.

  4. Click Delete.

How do I print barcode labels for purchase order items?

  1. Go to Commerce > Products > Purchase orders.

  2. Find the relevant purchase order in the list and click View in the OPTIONS column.

  3. Select Download barcode labels from the More dropdown.

  4. Choose a Label template from the dropdown, this will define the labels content and layout.

  5. Choose a Pricing tier from the dropdown, this will define the price used on the label.

  6. Choose a Currency from the dropdown, this will define the currency symbol used on the label.

  7. Click Download, this will download a PDF of barcode labels.

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